According to Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish, the 28-year-old Cervelli is drawing “lots of trade interest” from front offices around the league. Cotillo says the White Sox are “among many teams” that have been monitoring Cervelli this spring in Yankees camp.

Cervelli is out of minor league options and the Bombers seem comfortable going with 25-year-old former Top 100 prospect Austin Romine as the backup to new starting catcher Brian McCann. So they might as well deal from a surplus and attempt to address an area of need (key word: attempt).

Cervelli is a .271/.343/.367 career hitter in 623 major league plate appearances.

I don’t see the point of trading Cervelli, unless they are truly going to get reliable help for 2B, 3B, or the bullpen, or another option for backup at 1B. I would suggest packaging him with one or two other prospects, maybe one of the OF variety and another from the marginal pitching prospects that do not figure to make the team for slightly more impact. In all honesty if Solarte continues to play well they might as well try to get something for Nunez, because he is just about out of options, like Cervelli, and has always been a disaster in the field.

Agrees it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to trade him unless it’s in a package that would get them a nice back up for the infield. I rather see them keep him and let Romine start in the minors. Injuries happen and the catching position is rough. Might as well have insurance plus Cerveli has been great as the back up for the Yankees way back since he they won it all in 09.

If anything comes out of this it’ll be spare part for spare part. Which is fine, because the Yankees have a catching surplus. I would love to see a JR Murphy for Chris Owings trade with the Dbacks, though the Yanks would probably have to sweeten the deal somehow.

I think they’d rather trade Romine than Cervelli. Cervelli has hit in a lot of clutch situations and comes through a lot, and I think a lot of the staff liked throwing to him, plus the lineup is so loaded with lefties that it’ll be better to keep a viable righty threat on the bench since Romine has shown next to nothing at the plate up to this point. Cervelli is also a popular player and the Yankees love his hustle. Look for them to make Cervelli the backup and trade Murphy or Romine, preferably for one of Arizona’s shortstops

Are you implying <> that a double standard exists in public perception of PED users? That they are not all History’s Greatest Monsters? I’m sure if I look I will find just as much bile hurled at Cervelli as has been thrown at ARod, Braun and Peralta recently.

Otherwise it would almost seem as if PED usage is just the most convenient cudgel for those looking to bash a player they don’t like. I am going to go read through some of that Cervelli hate right now.

To be honest I just don’t see the Yankees trading any player other than Ichiro just for the purpose of making a trade. Cervelli is having a very good spring and both Romine and Murphy have minor league options. No doubt there will come a right time to trade one of the catchers on the roster but it’s going to be for a piece or pieces that help the Yankees in an area of need. And that time isn’t here yet in my opinion.

UYF, my friend, I agree. Cervelli isn’t going to bring significant talent, and the Yankees need him more than anything he or Romine or Murphy can bring at the present. Nobody is going to part with Owings or Franklin, or similar young talent for a guy like Cervelli. If Romine or Murphy improve and become the prospects some believe then perhaps later they could be part of a trade, but currently they are not answers to the Yankee problems.

There is no doubt that fans tend to overvalue their own teams prospects and in many cases undervalue other teams prospects. However it’s not only Yankees fans that are guilty of that but in my opinion nearly all baseball fans. To illustrate that point I’m reminded of a saying “one mans trash is another mans treasure”. For the purpose of making it more baseball related all one has to do is replace man with team “one teams trash is another teams treasure”. Have a good day, my friend.

spudchukar - Mar 11, 2014 at 12:24 PM

UYF, mon ami, while I am sure you are correct about fans, they aren’t the only ones making assessments, and most don’t think much of the top Yankee prospects. That is why guys like Cervelli and Ichiro are getting rumors. The Yanks would like to patch a couple of holes and don’t have the guys in AAA and AA to pull that off.

uyf1950 - Mar 11, 2014 at 1:02 PM

@ spudchukar, with all due respect I tend not to pay a lot of attention to how others rate prospects including the so called experts. Outside of usually the Top 5 or 10 can’t miss prospects in all of baseball the others are usually a crap shoot for MLB success. With no disrespect to the Red Sox fans on this site but I can’t tell you how many times over the past couple of years guys like Jackie Bradley and Will Middlebrooks were so highly regarded and some day they may still be valuable or even exceptional contributors but as of today I think you can count on one hand how much they have contributed to the Red Sox and still have fingers left over.

Like I said no disrespect to the Red Sox fans here but in my humble opinion both those players at this point in their careers are just 2 of the classic examples of a teams fans overvaluing their own teams prospects.

spudchukar - Mar 11, 2014 at 2:11 PM

UYF, mi amigo, Bradley is only 23 so it is unfair to call him a bust or even a disappointment. You could well be correct about Middlebrooks. You also could have included Banuelos, Betances, Romaine, Nunez and Hughes.

As a Braves fan , let me be the first to tell that Ol B-Mac won’t make it the entire season. Expect for him to miss a month or more of playing time. Honestly makes more sense to keep the vet and let the rook simmer in the minors or trade him off.

The projections — ZiPS, Steamer, and Oliver — have him down for 118, 130, and 143 games. That averages to 130, which seems a tad high to me. I’d guess 120 games are more likely. I would have expected that the Yankees would give him some time at first base, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards yet. (He’s never played there during his career, and I haven’t heard anything about him playing there this spring.) So almost all of his action will be behind the plate. The DH rotation seems so very crowded, especially since Soriano is best used as a full-time DH (with a rare start in left).

The backup catchers will be getting plenty of innings. The Yankees ought to make sure they like whomever they have.

They are finally dealing from a position of strength. They are many teams looking for a long and short term catching solution. I would be in no hurry to make a trade right now unless something really caught my interest. That said. With the exception of McCann. They are all available for the right deal.

It is nice that the Yankees have some depth at catcher right now, but that gun only has so many bullets. If they trade Cervelli, it likely prevents them from feeling comfortable trading Romine or Murphy (or perhaps Gary Sanchez).

If the best they can do with a Cervelli trade is a reserve infielder, they should hold out for a better deal with one of the other catchers and keep Cervelli as a backup/depth.